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Financial Management & Investment Corp CEO Tag Purvis has purchased the old Knights of Columbus building on Palafox Street. Purvis is relocating his financial company to Pensacola from Meridian, Miss by late summer, with salaries in excess of $70,000. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

Financial Management & Investment Corp CEO Tag Purvis has purchased the old Knights of Columbus building on Palafox Street. Purvis is relocating his financial company to Pensacola from Meridian, Miss by late summer, with salaries in excess of $70,000. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

Financial Management & Investment Corp CEO Tag Purvis has purchased the old Knights of Columbus building on Palafox Street. Purvis is relocating his financial company to Pensacola from Meridian, Miss by late summer, with salaries in excess of $70,000. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

Financial Management & Investment Corp CEO Tag Purvis has purchased the old Knights of Columbus building on Palafox Street. Purvis is relocating his financial company to Pensacola from Meridian, Miss by late summer, with salaries in excess of $70,000. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

Financial Management & Investment Corp CEO Tag Purvis has purchased the old Knights of Columbus building on Palafox Street. Purvis is relocating his financial company to Pensacola from Meridian, Miss by late summer, with salaries in excess of $70,000. Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com

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Financial Management & Investment Corp. CEO Tag Purvis has purchased the old Knights of Columbus building on Palafox Street. Purvis is relocating his financial company to Pensacola from Meridian, Miss., by late summer, with salaries in excess of $70,000.(Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)Buy Photo

Financial Management & Investment Corp. officials said Wednesday that Pensacola will become the company's new home.

The Meridian, Miss.-based business said the City of Five Flags won out over New Orleans and Austin as the company's future headquarters. The move represents the company's first expansion into Florida. FMC is a 60-year-old company that has 160 employees at 43 branches in Mississippi and Louisiana. It is expected to bring 15 jobs to Pensacola that pay an average of $72,740 a year.

The company bought the Knights of Columbus building at 519 N. Palafox St., spending $1.4 million for the purchase and renovations.

"Leaving Meridian was not a decision that we took lightly," CEO Tag Purvis said in an email. "Over much of the last year, the city of Pensacola, the state of Florida and the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce have all looked for ways to make this deal happen."

Purvis' 91-year-old father, Guy Purvis, founded the business and will continue to work for it in Pensacola.

The city of Pensacola and the state offered FMC $150,000 in tax incentives as part of the Florida's Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund program, which New Orleans didn't match. But Purvis told the News Journal on Wednesday that the company turned that down. The city's share would have been $30,000 over five years. Purvis asserted that accepting the money would be like taking a handout.

"Ultimately, after spending time in Pensacola, it was ... the interactions with people on the streets, the quality of life offered and what we view as a community headed in a very positive direction that made our decision easy," Purvis said.

"In short, Pensacola is clearly a lovely place that all of us want to live in and be a part of."

Purvis said FMC wants to be in its new building by July 1. He already bought a house five blocks from the building, and he wants to start hiring soon. He said he believes he can find a chief financial officer, the vice presidents and other employees he needs in the area and their pay will depend on their qualifications.

He has hired the Pensacola-based architecture firm Bay Design to remodel the building, which he said will have a 1960s "Mad Men" TV- show look.